First chefs eliminated from 'Hell's Kitchen'

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Lisa and Curtis have become the first chefs to be eliminated from Hell's Kitchen.

The duo were sent home on last night's season premiere of the Fox competition, which saw 16 new contestants vying for the chance to run the LA Market restaurant and scoop a salary of $250,000.

The episode opened with Gordon Ramsay instructing the chefs to cook their signature dish in just 45 minutes.

He was not impressed with the majority of the dishes, but the points tally eventually came down to 3-3. However, because Gordon particularly disliked Antonia's gumbo, the men were given the win. Their prize was champagne, caviar and massages, while the women had to clean the kitchens.

The opening night at the restaurant started in dramatic fashion when Antonia fell ill and was taken away to hospital. Gordon later told the chefs that Antonia will not be returning to the competition.

The evening was a disaster for both kitchens. Gordon criticized the service for being slow, saying that neither kitchen had managed to serve their entrees more than two hours into the service. He blasted Trev's salad dressing and the women's team for producing raw pizza, while he told Sabrina she needed to work on her teamsmanship after she decided to present him with her entree while the rest of her team were still working.

After diners began to leave, Gordon called the kitchens together to watch. "No-one is working together, no-one is even caring," he said. "That honestly has to be the worst ever opening in Hell's Kitchen. Tonight we set a new low. Congratulations, so far you are a joke. There is no winning team."

The teams were then instructed to select two chefs each to face elimination. The women chose Sabrina and Lisa and the men chose Raj and Trev. Gordon told all four that he was disappointed but in the end Lisa was sent home.

"I honestly never would have thought I would be the first to go," she said. "This competition was everything to me and Chef Ramsay should have sent Sabrina home. If I ever met her in a cook-off I could kick her ass."

The next day, the teams were instructed to recreate two sushi specialities working in pairs. The men took the win, and earned a wine tasting trip to San Francisco with Gordon. The woman remained behind to prep the sushi special for the dinner service. Gordon later said that one member from each team would be an assistant maître d' for that night's dinner service because they made life so difficult for the maître d' on opening night. He chose Jillian and Vinny.

However, the problems soon returned for the men as Gordon criticized Vinny for taking too long to log his tickets; Raj for failing to acknowledge his orders in the kitchen; and Curtis for his sushi making. Meanwhile, Vinny decided to start telling customers they shouldn't order sides because the kitchen was too slow, which infuriated Gordon. Tempers rose when the service ended and some of the chefs began verbally attacking Raj. The women's team scooped the win despite encountering difficulties when Emily struggled to cook the meat meaning that some of the fish dishes were wasted.

The men chose to nominate Raj and Boris for elimination, but Gordon also pulled up Vinny for consideration for his comments to the customers. Gordon then decided to eliminate Curtis for "completely destroying the slim possibility of the team succeeding" with his failure to make the sushi specialty.